The invention relates to an apparatus and a method for forming a stack of compiled advertising materials, respectively composed of an envelope and inserts, having a common, leading folded edge, the apparatus comprising a machine frame, a thereto attached circular transfer conveyor that circulates, a feed conveyor arranged upstream of the transfer conveyor and a stacking device arranged downstream of the transfer conveyor.
Swiss application No. CH 00073/15 describes a method and a corresponding apparatus for combining an envelope and several inserts to form a compilation of advertising materials. The envelopes and the inserts are deposited individually and successively one on top of the other in a gathering section of a conveying element that is moving in a transporting direction. For this, an envelope is deposited with the leading edge offset to the leading edges of the inserts in the conveying direction, so that the edge of the envelope projects relative to the inserts. The inserts are stacked one on top of the other so that the leading edges of the inserts form at least approximately a common folded edge, wherein the projecting section of the envelope which rests flat on the conveying element is folded over this common folded edge, as well as at least partially around the stack of gathered inserts, thereby forming the advertising material compilation. The compiled advertising materials are then folded along the folded edge and are conveyed further for the post processing. Together with the same or different advertising material compilations, they are generally sent to a supermarket chain and finally distributed to the customers.
For the purpose of a further processing, an automatic stacking operation of several such advertising material compilations, respectively composed of one envelope, inserts and having a common, leading folded edge, therefore makes sense. Advertising material compilations of this type, the content of which is frequently loose or can be separated easily, must therefore be treated carefully during the post-processing, so that the components are not separated before reaching the final customer. Compiled advertising materials that separate easily are understood to be compilations of individual advertising materials, such as brochures, goods samples, coupons and the like which, during the transport, are held together based on an earlier gluing operation, e.g. along several gluing points, until they are separated by the final customer for reading.
Also known is a post processing of individual signatures or printed sheets combined into a book block, which are supplied positioned flat or suspended to a transfer conveyor and are transferred from said conveyor to a downstream transport or further processing device.
European patent document EP2168894 A2 thus relates to an apparatus and a method for separating printed products supplied suspended in a compact formation by using a circular, circulating transfer conveyor and subsequently transferring these to a discharge device embodied as a conveying belt. The separating of the printed products occurs in an upstream takeover region and the discharge in a downstream transfer region. The transfer conveyor is provided for this with a rotating body in the form of a central wheel, having an axis of rotation and eight pivoting arms respectively provided with a gripper, as well as with an outer carrier wheel that is also embodied as a rotating body with a second axis and a guide mechanism for adjusting the pivoting position of the pivoting arms. The central wheel is connected to a first drive and the carrier wheel to a second drive. A third drive is also used for adjusting the two axes, so that the transfer conveyor can be switched from the operation with a coaxial drive to an operation with eccentrically arranged rotational bodies. With the coaxial operation, all pivoting arms are arranged equidistant, whereas the pivoting arms are at a shorter distance to each other in the upper region of the transfer conveyor and at a longer distance in the lower region. By correspondingly displacing the guide mechanism, the transfer conveyor can be adapted to different formats of the printed products, so that these can be turned over with the required speed to the discharge conveyor. Since the guide mechanism is relatively expensive and involved, it results in an expensive and relatively large design for the apparatus. In addition, the use of several drives is also expensive and the failure of a single drive train can result in the loss of synchronicity and increased repair costs. Finally, with an apparatus of this type, a reduction in speed in the transfer region of the grippers attached to the pivoting arms and thus the printed products transported therewith is not possible owing to the increased spacing in the lower region of the transfer conveyor and thus the increased speed of the pivoting arms. An apparatus of this type and the corresponding method are therefore not suitable for forming a stack with compiled advertising materials, composed of an envelope and inserts and having a common, leading folded edge and, in particular, not for forming a stack of loose or easily separated advertising material compilations.
With this solution, the compiled advertising materials are furthermore gripped by the grippers of the feed conveyor on the open side and by the grippers of the transfer conveyor along the folded edge. Such a combination of a feed conveyor and transfer conveyor consequently does not allow a suspended feeding of loose or easily separated advertising material compilations for which the compiled advertising materials while only partially enclosed by an envelope are taken over by the gripper of the transfer conveyor along the folded edge because the compiled advertising materials, which can also have different formats for the inserts and the envelope, can fall apart while being gripped along the open side by the gripper of the feed conveyor.
A similar transfer conveyor is described in U.S. Pat. No. 7,422,212 B2. This conveyor is used for the transport of folded envelopes for newspapers with the aid of a feed conveyor arranged upstream of the transfer conveyor and transported by the grippers while suspended to a conveyor for the further transport, which is arranged downstream of the transfer conveyor, on which the printed products are deposited individually and positioned flat in a transfer region. The envelopes form pockets in this case for accommodating the inserts and enclosing these on three sides, wherein the envelopes are held along the open side by the feed conveyor gripper.
The transfer conveyor comprises pivoting arms, arranged on a circular wheel positioned eccentrically in a circular frame, which are provided with respectively one gripper at the opposite outer end. The grippers of the transfer conveyor can be swiveled around a joint with respect to their orientation to the pivoting arms. The pivoting arms comprise a guiding element, which is guided along an outer ring arranged along the circumference of the transfer conveyor. A guide mechanism of this type, arranged in the outer ring, has relatively large dimensions requiring an involved production and is therefore relatively expensive to produce. A reduction in speed of the grippers arranged on the pivoting arms and thus the advertising material compilations held by the grippers cannot be achieved in the transfer region with such an apparatus because of the larger spacing in the lower region and the resulting increased speed of the pivoting arms.
With this solution, the compiled advertising materials are also gripped by the feed conveyor grippers along the open side and along the folded edge by the transfer conveyor grippers. A combination of feed conveyor and transfer conveyor of this type consequently also does not permit a suspended feeding of loose or easily separated advertising material compilations, wherein the advertising material compilations are only partially enclosed by an envelope and are taken over by the transfer conveyor gripper along the folded edge. That is the case because the compiled advertising materials, which can have different formats for inserts and envelopes, can already come apart while being gripped along the open side by the feed conveyor grippers.
The known apparatuses therefore require a large amount of space, have relatively involved designs and do not permit a sufficiently careful stacking of advertising material compilations with respectively one envelope, inserts and having a common, leading folded edge and, in particular, not of loose or easily separated advertising material compilations. The inserts can be composed of printed products or other types of promotional materials. An apparatus of this type and the corresponding method are consequently not suitable for forming a stack of such compiled advertising materials. The same is also true for the method realized with these apparatuses.